High School Tennis/ No record 18th win/ Findlay keeps Ashland from tying season wins record

Thursday

Sep 25, 2008 at 2:03 AM

By MATT STRAYER

T-G Sports Writer

The record for most wins in a single season by an Ashland High School girls tennis team is safe for another year, and coach Rick Crooks will have to wait at least that long to pick up his 100th win with the Lady Arrow netters.

Ashland lost for only the third time this year Wednesday, dropping a tight 3-2 contest to Findlay (11-6) in the final match of the regular season.

A win would have given the Arrows their 18th victory of the season and tied the mark set in 1997.

Instead, Ashland closed the regular season 17-3 (6-1 in the Ohio Cardinal Conference), which is still good enough to tie for second-most wins in a season along with four other Arrow teams, all guided by longtime coach Carl Leedy.

Meanwhile, Crooks will hold steady at 99 regular-season wins in seven years with the Ashland girls team, at least until the Arrows hit the court next August. He has won 68 matches in four years as the boys tennis coach.

"I'll have to wait 'til next year. That's OK. That was the least of my, I just thought it would be an added thing," Crooks said. "My biggest thing was trying to get the team to get into the record books.

"They were pretty down when I was talking to them, but I think by (today), like most high school kids, I think they'll bounce back."

With the match tied 2-2 and all other matches completed, it all hinged on the second doubles match between Ashland's Kaiti Frank and Jade Grandy and Findlay's Emily Young and Katie Worstell.

Already down a set and losing 4-3 in the second, Frank and Grandy rallied to win three straight games and capture the second set, 6-4.

They then broke serve in Game 6 of the third set to take a 4-2 lead. But Young and Worstell won four straight games to take the set and the match, frustrating the Ashland netters with a strategy not seen yet this season: the lob.

"That is a good strategy because that keeps you back on the baseline," Crooks said. "It prevents you from getting to the net, and we just didn't win many points at the net. We couldn't get up there."

"I think Ashland was probably a little more aggressive. They played a great match, it's just that we won points at the right time," Findlay coach Ray Elbin said. "They probably would have wanted to see a little more pace, but you could tell our girls don't hit with much pace. They're not very physically strong girls. (Ashland) had to generate any pace that was there."

The first two matches to finish went in Ashland's favor with straight-set, all-but-guaranteed victories from Danielle Rueger at third singles, 6-3, 6-0, and Chelsea Kauffman and Megan Gisclon at first doubles, 6-0, 6-2.

Between the three of them, Rueger (19-1) and the team of Kauffman and Gisclon (16-2) have lost only three matches the entire season. Rueger's lone loss came against powerhouse Lexington.

"Danielle at third (singles), you can almost chalk up the point there without even playing the match," Crooks said. "Our first doubles have been that way almost every match, too. You know you're going to get two points from them in most matches. It's nice to have that, them being that reliable."

Not long after, Janelle Hess and Lacey Myers lost hard-fought matches at first and second singles, respectively.

Hess, who delivered powerful forehand winners early in the match but was worn down by the scrappy defense of Kelsi Wurm, lost 6-4, 6-2. Elbin said Wurm played her best match of the season.

"She saved it for us," Crooks said. "Janelle played this girl last year in our invitational, and was very close to beating her, in fact had her beat and kind of let it slip away, so we thought she would have a chance."

Myers still was not up to full strength after being hospitalized and missing more than a week of matches and practice, according to Crooks.

Ashland will next host the OCC tournament 9 a.m. Saturday at the College of Wooster.

"We've had a great year regardless of what happened (Wednesday). I think they'll learn from that," Crooks said.

Findlay also won the junior varsity match, 3-2, by taking both doubles matches and third singles.

Winners for Ashland were Lisa Gisclon at first singles, 8-3, and Shelbi Miller at second singles, 8-3.

Alayna Anderson dropped her third singles match, 8-3.

The first doubles team of Kearstin Hickey and Taylor Campbell lost its match, 8-2, while Emily Gruber and Teresa Williams lost their second doubles match, 8-1.